Data released this week by a government agency shows Nairobi County had the highest cases of minors being impregnated in 2019.
According to the the National Council for Population and Development (NCPD), about 2,432 girls aged below 18 years were impregnated, and some of those carried the pregnancy to the end.
On a national level, 379,573 minors were impregnated in 2019 with 20,828 of them being below 14 years.
Lucy Kimondo, NCPD’s assistant director while releasing data on Wednesday said the reported cases of pregnancy among teenagers led to depression and deaths.
“There is also a very high rate of fistula among these girls. Imagine a 10-year-old girl trying to push a baby during birth,” she remarked as quoted by The Star.
Nairobi was closely followed by Nakuru County in the crime where 1,748 minors suffered the same followed by Kajiado with 1,523 cases.
Kericho had 1,006 cases, Homa Bay (957, Narok (910), Kisii (723), Bungoma (592), Turkana (560), and Kakamega (536).
Isiolo reported the lowest crimes of underage pregnancies (14) while Lamu registered (22), Embu (25), Nyandarua (47), Kiriyaga (53) and Elgeyo Marakwet (59).
Kimondo blamed lack of general education and sexual violence as the reasons behind the high numbers of impregnated minors.
“Girls with no education are more likely to become pregnant compared to girls with secondary and [above] education level,” she added.
She also said that this is a major reason as to why the spread of HIV and STIs is prevalent among youngsters.
The data was collected through an online reporting platform through the Kenya Health Information System which is installed across health facilities in the country.